Forex Market shocked by Swiss National Bank decision

Over two decades ago, George Soros took on the Bank of England, and won. Just before lunch local time, the Swiss National Bank took on virtually every single macro hedge fund, the vast majority of which were short the Swiss Franc and crushed them, when it announced, first, that it would go further into NIRP, pushing its interest rate on deposit balances even more negative from -0.25% to -0.75%, a move which in itself would have been unprecedented and, second, announcing that the 1.20 EURCHF floor it had instituted in September 2011, the day gold hit its all time nominal high, was no more.

What happened next was truly shock and awe as algo after algo saw their EURCHF 1.1999 stops hit, and moments thereafter the EURCHF pair crashed to less then 0.75, margining out virtually every single long EURCHF position, before finally rebounding to a level just above 1.00, which is where it was trading just before the SNB instituted the currency floor over three years ago.

Visually:

The resultant move across all currency pairs has seen the EUR and USD sliding, the USDJPY crashing, and US futures tumbling even as European stocks plunged only to kneejerk higher as markets are in clear turmoil and nobody knows just what is going on right now.

In other asset classes, Treasury yields, understandably plunged across the entire world, and the entire Swiss bond curve lest of the 10 Year is now negative, with the On The Run itself threatening to go negative soon as can be seen.

Crude and other commodities, except gold, are also tumbling, as are most risk assets over concerns what today’s epic margin call will mean when the closing bell arrives.

An immediate, and amusing, soundbite came from the CEO of Swatch Nick Hayek who said that “words fail me” at the SNB action: “Today’s SNB action is a tsunami for the export industry and for tourism, and finally for the entire country.”

Some more soundbites from strategists, none of whom foresaw this stunning move:

“Major losses in euro-franc trades are causing panic selling and deleveraging across the board.”

CHRIS BEAUCHAMP, MARKET ANALYST AT IG

“My initial reaction was that it is a sign the ECB is about to do something, which makes it odd that the reaction has been so negative across European stocks. However, it’s not every day that a central bank pulls the rug out from underneath something in such a massive way, and clearly people are worried that there’s something bigger afoot. This kind of event is the kind of thing that will trigger volatility. This is not a one day thing now.”

DARREN COURTNEY-COOK, HEAD OF TRADING AT CENTRAL MARKETS INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT

“They’ve stopped defending the 1.20 floor. It’s carnage.”

PATRICK JACQ, RATE STRATEGIST, BNP PARIBAS, PARIS

“The decision of the SNB means it no longer needs to buy euro-denominated paper in order to defend the 1.20 position. This should normally weigh on European debt but the SNB also said they will continue to monitor in order to prevent the exchange rate from rising substantially.

“This means that at the end of the day even if they don’t defend the 1.20 level, if they want to prevent a collapse of the euro versus the Swiss franc they will probably have to keep on buying, maybe at a lesser extent, euro denominated paper.”

JONATHAN WEBB, HEAD OF FX STRATEGY AT JEFFERIES, LONDON

“It has taken the market by complete surprise. The SNB probably expects the ECB to launch QE next week and along with the Greek elections coming up, it would make it pretty tough on the Swiss to keep bidding the euro.

So they have abandoned the cap and cut rates deeper into negative territory. We expect euro/Swiss to trade around 0.90-1.00 francs after all the stop loss orders have been cleared”

GEOFFREY YU, CURRENCY STRATEGIST AT UBS IN LONDON:

“They think too much money is going to come in, especially with QE coming, and so they think they need a ‘Plan B’.”